Mr Weir,
In your table one can see that the cost for a patent in Germany is much
higher than the one for France. It is well known that there are many more
patents filed in Germany than in France. This enlightens the current debate
on cost of patents in the UE as regards the number of patents filed. It is
not so obvious that lowering costs of patents will result in an increase of
patent filing from European SMEs. The result will be, more obviously, that
those countries already filing many patents will file more and increase
their domination.
If the total cost of a patent is EUR 15000 to 25000, this cost should be
negligible as compared to the revenue coming from a market monopoly given
on the invention over 20 years. If it is not negligible, then is it worth
to grant a monopoly to such invention?
As an additional information about annual fees we, as a firm specialising
in this flied, have good statistics. If you consider a "well balanced"
patent portfolio (with patents in US, JP and some countries in the EU,
young and old patents), the average cost of an annual fee is EUR450
(meaning that a firm having a portfolio paying 500 annual fees will pay
EUR450x500 to its patent attorney every year). There are means to reduce
this cost.
Gérard BORIN
http://www.sga2.com
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